Any parent will tell you that their child going missing is their worst nightmare.

Video footage of a woman grabbing a toddler in broad daylight in Sasolburg in the Free State shows this scenario playing out in a matter of seconds.

In the video, the child’s mother turns away for a moment to pay for her purchase at a till, when her three-year-old son is grabbed by a woman who calmly walks away.

Per The Citizen, when the mother realised that the toddler was gone, she chased the woman, and managed to retrieve her son:

Police spokesperson Motantsi Makhele said a 24-year-old woman was arrested on Friday and will appear in the Sasolburg Magistrate’s Court this week.

“Her son was playing next to her. When she turned around to take her card from her handbag she noticed that an African lady was carrying her son in her hands in front of her. The complainant ran to the African lady,” Makhele said.

The police say that when the mother asked the woman what she was doing she laughed and said that she was leaving the shop with the child.

Police are investigating a case of human trafficking.

[source:citizen]